We left off at the spa, Frank had met me and we were headed off to Orlando International Airport for the saddest part of the trip. Frank’s flight was actually leaving 2.5 hours after mine, but since he would have had to leave at the same time if he used the Magical Express, he decided to ride with me.
I dropped him at JetBlue, dropped off the rental car, checked my luggage at Continental and headed for the Food Court to meet back up with him. I have to say that after all the wonderful food choices we had had over the last week, the airport Food Court seemed pretty dull.
It was finally time for me to head over to the gate, so we said our final goodbyes!
I had an uneventful flight home (no celebrities in 1st Class) and the plane even landed early. Before I knew it, I was back to reality in good old NJ. And it was cold! Good thing I had my brand new Walt Disney World jacket, that was sweatshirty on the inside and water resistant on the outside and even had a hood!
Here’s a summary of what we accomplished in the past week:
Restaurants
Contempo Cafe – Contemporary
‘Ohana Character Breakfast – Polynesian
Columbia Harbor House – Magic Kingdom
Pizzafari – Animal Kingdom
The Wave – Contemporary
50’s Prime Time Cafe – Hollywood Studios
Raglan Road – Downtown Disney
Tokyo Dining – Epcot
The Flying Fish Cafe – BoardWalk
Shows/Special Events
Wildlife Discovery Tour – Animal Kingdom (only available to concierge guests)
Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue – Pioneer Hall, Fort Wilderness
La Nouba – Cirque du Soleil – Downtown Disney
Spa Treatments – Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa
Parks
Magic Kingdom
Animal Kingdom
Hollywood Studios
Epcot
DisneyQuest (sort of park-like)
Some random notes about the value of planning:
We like to plan. We like to have an itinerary worked out ahead of time, so we know where we are going as well as what we plan to do and eat. The itinerary for this trip worked out well. We accomplished everything we had planned and we never felt rushed.
Frank likes to use the
touringplans.com to decide which parks to visit on which day. It did seem that the parks we visited were not too crowded on the days we were there.
We usually plan to do a park in the morning, back to the hotel for a snooze
, and either a park or some other activity in the afternoon. We find if we break up the day, with a rest in between, we enjoy ourselves more.
Some notes about the Concierge service:
At lot of people ask ‘is the concierge level worth it?’ My answer would always be ‘it depends’. (IRL, I am a computer performance engineer, so I tend to answer a lot of questions this way.) If you are a person that doesn’t like to spend money on frills, then it’s probably not for you (and please don't spoil it for the rest of us
). But if you are looking for a special treat, let me list just a few of the things that I loved about concierge:
At the Contemporary, the concierge rooms are located on the top two floors (12 & 14 – yes there is no 13, which means that 14 is REALLY 13, I know!) and have arguably, the best views in WDW (even the rooms that don’t face MK have spectacular views of Bay Lake).
The rooms are bigger and have more amenities.
The Wildlife Discovery Tour was a concierge only perk that we loved.
You have concierges at your service, 24 x 7 to take care of any needs/questions/issues. They are located on the same floor as your room.
Itinerary Planners are available, prior to your trip, to make ADRs, get tickets to shows and events and take care of any special needs, in advance. This service is only available to concierge guests For the most part, the Itinerary Planners worked well for us. They got us excellent seats for La Nouba and the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue. We also got excellent tables at The Wave and the Flying Fish.
I believe I’ve already bored you to tears with the story of the botched check in. However, I really found this screw up to be totally unacceptable. The should either have someone meet you when you arrive and take you upstairs, or they should send you up to the concierge level to be checked in. The shouldn’t have college interns checking people in, unless they’re working with an experience CM.
Some notes about the Atrium Club:
The Atrium Club is located just off the lobby of the 12th floor. It is a good size and we were always able to find a seat in the morning, even when it was crowded. There are several large screen TVs located around the lounge which were tuned to cartoons in the morning. There are couches and tables located throughout.
The following items were always available: coffee, tea and a do-it-yourself espresso/cappuccino/latte machine complete with flavored syrups (see Frank for directions). Plus soda and water, although it was Evian water, available by the glass (I’m guessing people were wiping them out of bottles of water).
Breakfast items included cold cereal, donuts, pastries, croissant, muffins, toast, juice.
For the afternoon and evening there were assorted brownies, cookies, cupcakes, miniature pastries and other delectable snacky foods. There were hot h’ordeuvres in the evening, although I never made it down there for that. The even had a wine testing one night. There was beer and wine available in the evenings and also cordials if you needed a little toot before bed!
It was really nice to have breakfast just down the hall and ready immediately!
It was also nice to pick up a tasty snack when returning from a long, hard day at the parks. Or a little pre-dinner snack.. Or a little post-dessert dessert.
And speaking of desserts, here’s a recap of the week’s best:
From The Wave:
From top left:Cheesecake with raspberry coulis, Coconut panna cotta with passion fruit drizzle, Blueberry compote with yogurt gelato. From bottom left: Chocolate-passion fruit mousse with pecan-olive brittle, Lemon cornbread with vanilla panna cotta, Chocolate mousse with salted caramel sauce.
The Snozberry (I can’t remember the actual name) Tart – Raglan Road:
White Chocolate Mousse, Little Chocolate Shake, Dark Chocolate Mousse – Raglan Road:
Chocolate Pretzel Thingy (pre-raisinectomy)– Norway
Celebrate Today Key Lime Pie (a.k.a. Kathy’s religious experience) – The Flying Fish Cafe
All good things must come to an end. We had an incredible trip and I hope I was able to take you along for the ride, via this trip report! Its my first one, so thanks for putting up with my learning curve! Next time, I promise to take more pictures and to photograph the food before I eat it!
On behalf of Frank, Tink and myself, thanks for reading!!!
So, Mouseketeers
Now it’s time,
to say goodbye,
to all our company!
M-I-C,
See ya real soon!
K-E-Y,
Why? Because we LIKE you!
M-O-U-S-EEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Did they relocate right after they took this picture???
